In an Alternate Setting
by T. Prota
Summary: Emma and Co. are sent through a portal where they are sent into a strange land. Not only will they have to find a way of getting back, but they'll have to take care of a certain Princess. (Or the Charmings land in an alternate world where the curse never happened.)


**Description**: Emma and Co. are sent through a portal where they are sent into a strange land. Not only will they have to find a way of getting back, but they'll have to take care of a certain Princess. (Or the Charmings land in an alternate world where the curse never happened.)

**Notes: I couldn't get this out of my head so I wrote this all out pretty quickly. This means I've made a lot of grammar mistakes but I don't care. This is for my wellbeing and your possible enjoyment.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: The Accident<strong>

They had been enjoying the day so far. Albeit the day had been a bit cloudy, they were happy with the opportunity in being able to spend time together–even if that meant spending it under the roof of Granny's diner.

It had been a week since the end of the whole Ice Queen fiasco, and the Charming family were enjoying a (surprisingly) peaceful morning. It was brunch time on a Saturday which meant the whole family could go to Granny's together and eat there. Once they arrived, they met up with Hook and Regina before pulling up a few tables and started to converse animately.

"...And they said I couldn't do it!" exclaimed Hook from the middle of his story.

"Don't tell me…" David said shaking his head.

"Oh I did it. I took the plank out and back flipped into the water." The whole table burst into gleeful laughter.

However, it was all short lived when Leroy ran into the diner, throwing the door open, and shouting, "DANGER! DANGER!"

"_What is it this time? Can't we take a break?"_ Emma couldn't help but think to herself. She pushed the thought away as she jumped up and asked in a concerned tone, "What is it Leroy? What's wrong?"

"The barn," he answered, "I was driving by the barn when I saw this weird cloud thing appear from up above and now its descending!"

"Wait, the barn that Zelena used to try to open a portal?" Hook asked. Leroy nodded his head in confirmation. Hook added, "I thought we closed that bloody thing?"

"Well we'll have to go check it out," Emma sighed.

"Are you sure? Wouldn't it be safer to leave the portal be?" asked Snow.

Regina spoke up, "I agree with Snow on this one. No harm could be done to us if we're nowhere near that portal."

"True, but I'd rather like to know what or if something is going to come out of it before it causes any trouble," Emma answered. Everyone agreed with her logic so she said, "I'm taking the police cruiser."

"Then I'm joining you," said David. Before Emma could deny his help, the other occupants of the table offered to join as well.

Emma sighed, looking for a way out. "Ok, but what about Henry and baby Neal?" She pointed at the infant swaddled in blankets in Snow's arms.

"But mom!" Henry started in protest but was cut off by the pointed glares by both of his mothers.

"I can take him." The group turned to Belle who had been sitting in one of the diner's booths. Belle spoke, "I mean its not like I have anything else to do."

Ever since the situation with Rumplestiltskin, Belle had closed herself off from everyone else. Lately, she was working in the library from early morning to late at night, and while many people had stopped by, nobody could get more that a sentence out of her.

Snow was surprised. Two debates were going on in her mind. One part of her wanted to keep baby Neal to herself and leave the hero work to the rest of the family, but the other part of her missed the action and wanted to hand Neal to Belle to babysit. The latter would also give Belle the chance to focus on other things other than Rumplestiltskin, and since Belle was a close and trusted friend, Snow decided to go with the second option.

"Okay," she said as she handed Neal over to Belle to the surprise of those in the diner, "I know you have our emergency numbers and I know you know what to do. Take care of him for me, we'll try to be quick."

"And you be good," said Regina as she hugged Henry.

Belle nodded as she offered little Neal her finger who grabbed it and started playing with it. "I promise."

"Good," said Snow before she turned to Emma, "Let's go."

Emma nodded and exited the diner followed by the rest of the Charming family, Regina, and Hook.

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><p>Three vehicles pulled up at the barn within a few minutes. As soon as they had left the diner, they decided to take the police cruiser, Snow's car, and Regina's car. Six figures emerged carrying various weapons of sorts. David and Emma both held guns, however David carried his sword in his belt, as did Hook. Mary Margaret was equipped with a bow and arrow. Leroy carried his pickaxe and crossbow. And Regina was left with nothing but her magic. (But to be fair, that itself was more dangerous than anything else everyone had carried.)<p>

"Everyone ready?" Emma asked aloud as she loaded her gun.

"Wait!" the call came from inside the police cruiser. Everyone turned to the direction of the voice to find Henry climbing out.

"No, kid, its too dangerous," Emma said, immediately protesting. "How did you even get in there?"

"I snuck in when you guys were debating on whether or not we were going to take the bug," said Henry as he swung his usual backpack filled with who-knows-what onto his shoulders.

Regina stepped up, "Still, you're staying here where its safe."

"Where I can be potentially kidnapped… again?" Henry stated as he lifted an eyebrow. Emma and Regina looked at each other. Emma looked like she wanted to give in to Henry's logic, but Regina's expression was outright denial.

"No!" Regina exclaimed as she saw Emma's face.

"I hate to admit it, but he does have a point," said Emma. Honestly, every time Henry has been left alone, especially during a time of crisis, there was a high possibility that he would get kidnapped.

"How about he stays behind me and Leroy during the duration of the whole thing, so we can get on with dealing with this crisis," Hook snapped, getting annoyed with the indecision.

"I'll be fine," Henry assured them, agreeing to Hook's plan.

"See? Now let's go," Hook said as he started walking towards the barn. The rest of the group rolled their eyes at him before following.

As the barn came into view, so did the descending mass of cloud as Leroy had described. The cloud itself seemed to have broken the roof of the barn, so the bottom half of the cloud was covered by the building itself. Taking a closer look, strong gusts of wind impacted the group as they got closer and closer to the barn's doors. Everyone treaded on slowly, preparing themselves for any sudden developments. Fortunately, they were able to make it to the barn doors without any incident. David and Emma threw open the entrance and immediately a bright glow of alternating light burst from the cylindrical cloud.

"What type of portal is that?" Snow shouted over the deafening wind as she nocked an arrow into her bow.

"It doesn't look like a realm travelling one!" shouted Regina as she conjured a fireball.

"Nor does it look like a time travelling portal," Hook called from the back as he held Henry behind him.

Before anybody could say anything else, a loud, horrid screeching was heard from the barn, startling everyone.

"What the hell was that?" Emma looked to Regina for answers, but Regina only shrugged helplessly.

Her question was answered when a huge grey stone creature came barrelling out of the portal. It let out a huge bellowing screech causing everyone's hands to fly up to their ears, blocking out the ugly noise. The grey creature shot into the air, but did not vacate the area, instead opting to circle above the group.

Seeing it as an opportunity, Emma immediately pointed and started shooting at it. A few of the shots missed but one found its mark, hitting the creature around the leg area. It let out an angry cry before turning its head at the direction of its attacker.

"Nice going Swan!" Regina exclaimed as it dove down and started towards Emma. She conjured another fireball after the first one was extinguished in surprise and threw it at the direction of the stone creature.

David and Killian jumped in front of Emma with their swords raised as the creature swiftly dodged Regina's attacks and kept soaring towards the Savior. However, before it came a few feet from the two mens' swords, it was attacked by a barrage of arrows. It turned its head towards the origin and saw Snow White and Grumpy with their bows pointed. It changed its direction and lunged in Grumpy's direction.

"Watch out!" Mary Margaret tackled Leroy to the ground before the stone creature could lay its claws on it.

"HENRY!"

Mary Margaret and Leroy turned their attention to the creature and saw it grab onto the person who promised to stay behind Leroy and Hook a few minutes ago. Henry.

"MOM HELP!" Henry was lifted off the ground by his backpack. The stone creature started flying higher and higher, making everyone grow fearful if the creature were to loosen its grip.

"Regina what is it? How do we stop it?" Emma exclaimed as she kept her gun pointed, but didn't shoot in fear that she would hit her son.

"Its a gargoyle, and all I know that its made of stone, but that's all I know," Regina shouted, but added, "I can't do anything to it without hitting Henry. Wasn't your pirate and that dwarf supposed to keep him safe?"

Emma grunted in frustration but found her eyes wandering to the barn and the open portal. "We've got to block its path," she muttered to herself in realization.

David looked at her, "What did you say?"

"The portal, we've got to close the gargoyle's path to the portal or else Henry would…" she didn't have to finish the sentence. David nodded in understanding and immediately went to the barn doors. Killian joined him and as the two started pulling the doors close (with difficulty due to the winds coming from the portal threatening to suck them in), the gargoyle spotted the two trying to cut off its escape route.

The gargoyle let out an angry shrill as it darted towards entrance, determined to escape from this strange land. Henry screamed from the sudden plunder the creature took before it pulled up in a direct line towards Killian and David's direction.

Emma saw the creature going straight for its exit, so making a split second decision, she tucked her gun into her belt holster and started sprinting.

Snow noticed the look of determination on her daughter's face, immediately making her worried since Emma only wore that look when she was going to face something head-on. To her horror she watched as Emma put her gun away before breaking into a sprint… into the direction of the gargoyle's path.

"Emma, no!" Snow White ran after her daughter seconds later.

Emma leaped as the gargoyle was only a few feet away from the barn doors, meeting the gargoyle's path perpendicularly. After instantly making contact with either the gargoyle or Henry, Emma held on, steadfast in not losing her son. Moments later, she felt another weight behind her, pulling her back. Emma looked to what she was holding on to and saw that she was gripping her son's sleeve.

"Pull!" came her mother's voice from behind her. Emma obeyed and the two Charming women pulled to keep Henry from being dragged off. Realizing what they were doing, the gargoyle turned its head to give off another scream, before it was knocked in the back of the head by none other than Prince Charming. The stone creature fell forward, dragging Emma, Snow, and Henry as well as managing to knock into David on its way down.

The whole Charming family wrestled to keep the gargoyle down and free Henry, but the stone creature would not go down without a fight. As a last attempt, the gargoyle lunged forward, beating down on its stone wings, not caring whether or not it hit anybody. The Charmings held on, but did not realize that they were dangerously close to the portal itself.

"Emma!" "Henry!" "Snow!" Hook, Regina, and Leroy called as they ran after the family.

With one last push the gargoyle dove straight into the portal, dragging the whole Charming family with it.

As soon as all entangled body parts disappeared into the portal, the cloud-like vortex closed, leaving the three with no chance in joining the family on their little adventure.

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><p><strong>It sucks, I don't care. Let me get the story written and out of my head so I can actually think straight. <strong>

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